Developed first as a show car to celebrate the Ford Centennial, the Ford GT40 concept car came as a big...
Italy and France each have beautiful and robust cultures with diverse offerings and unique perspectives. And while each is unique...
I’ve been revisiting a series of cars recently from the period of my youth. There’s something to be said about the cars we saw everyday while young. Even if they were part of our general visual landscape some of them captivated us in a strangely endearing way. The Saab 900...
I graduated from Art Center College of Design in 1987. MTV was in full swing, Compact Disc players were the...
July 2017 Porsche 914 – The Racing History By Roy Smith Writing about a subject is relatively easy when there...
I don’t often reference values when discussing design, but a great deal of the success of a sports car resides in the price/value relationship experienced under ownership. If you poll most sports car enthusiasts and ask them to name a beautiful 1960s era open British sports car with a six-cylinder...
Every year flocks of determined swallows return to mission San Juan Capistrano, California – a journey of 6,000 miles. It’s...
There is something so unmistakably compelling about the sports cars produced in the 1960s. Beautifully formed, sculpturally exquisite, and modestly...
Regular readers of this column will know that I delight in the obscure, so imagine my joy when at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, I finally came face to face with a 1955 Abarth 207. This was an achingly pretty Fiat-engined 1100 cc sports racer built with SCCA racing...
Red Line Oil Most classic car enthusiasts would sooner pour water into their crankcase before using synthetic oil in vintage...
If you went looking for the true father of the Sunbeam Tiger, you might surmise that American Carroll Shelby would...
This is technically the first issue of Vintage Roadcar as an online-only periodical. While many of us will miss the paper magazine, I felt it was important to take a moment to recognize the significance of this transition both in how cars are talked about, perceived by the public, and...
After suffering what must be called the worst five years of American car design 1974-1979, the 1980s ushered in the...
A few weeks ago, a standard Series 1 Datsun 240Z sold for $315,000 on a much-publicized public internet auction. The...
The genius of Colin Chapman is evident in every one of his cars. Each of his creations were uniquely endowed, not only with clever engineering, but a special blend of design and mechanical innovation that seemed to illude virtually all other manufacturers, or at least be years ahead of them....
The modern startup gets a lot of attention these days. Investors hoping to ensnare the illusive “unicorn” status that might...
In the 1980s, the idea of a Japanese Luxury Sedan was a radical concept. Most North American perceptions around Japanese...
After leaving Lotus, I was “sucked in” by Don Nichols and rejoined Shadow. He said James Hunt would be our driver, and that all the problems of the past had been sorted out. I’d had offers from Fittipaldi and Renault, but in the end I went back to Shadow. Tab-a-tip...
Driven by charismatic leadership and inspired by sporting elegance, Aston Martin has long been associated with top performance cars built...
We purchased a 1964 Mercedes-Benz 230 SL in the early 1980s. The car came out of Dekalb, Georgia, so it...
Italians do some great things with cars. Well, to be fair, they pretty much do everything with a great deal of artistry and passion. It doesn’t take much to get into their history of art, sculpture, music, food, dance, and cars to realize how captivating their culture is. But my...
The 1929 Lincoln Aero Phaeton, by LeBaron, was one of the earliest American vehicles to employ a tailfin. Priced at...
I love good pesto. It has all the right ingredients for a wonderful meal. Cheese, basil, olive oil, all ground...
GT350 Dear Editor, As a 30-plus year owner of a GT350H, the Hertz car on the cover of your Roadcar section of the August issue caught my attention. While a very well done and laid out article, there are a number of inaccuracies that came to my attention: Become a...
We’re all creatures of water. Millions of years ago we emerged from a boiling primordial stew as multi-cell organisms, evolved...
It’s that time of year. When we celebrate that hallmark of Americana, Father’s Day. Get out the smoker, grill some...
The Shelby Daytona Coupe is the best American car ever built. Maybe even the best in the world. I can say this with a fair measure of confidence as this is my 100th car design article for this publication! That’s just over eight years of articles evaluating the automotive design...
On January 15, 2021, Jerry Wiegert passed away. If you struggle to recall that name or its significance in the...
By the 1950s it was clear that Americans were in the mood for sporty cars with the right balance of...
When car companies build futuristic concepts for tomorrow, they are usually exotic cars with sporty, low-profile bodies, and technologically advanced interiors. Show cars are often built around improbable dreams of tomorrow, and are decidedly impractical. Even if they are dreamy notions of what the future might be, it’s still fun...